The Daily Express

The Declaration Of Independence & God
by Rev. James Keller

When our Founding Fathers, 175 years ago, drew up and adopted a charter, now recognized as one of the noblest documents of all times, they based its authority on Almighty God.

In so brief a document, these men might have made but one reference to the Creator. But they wanted to hammer home truths which they feared others might discard, truths which they knew were fundamental to Democracy.

Woven, therefore, into the texture of the Declaration of Independence are four significant sentences.

Direct Quotations
1. Note the wording of the first: "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them . . ."

Our forefathers might have established their claims on the "Laws of Nature" alone. Instead, they emphasized the fact that the natural law itself depends on God.

2. The second sentence is equally positive: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. . ."

3. Toward the end of the document, the Founding Fathers appeal, in their own words, "to the Supreme Judge of the world" for the rectitude of their intentions.

4. The Declaration closes with the following statement: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

They Recognized God
Evidently, the Fathers of our country felt that they should be most explicit. They were God-fearing men. For them the idea of God had to be integrated with everything if men were not to forget that their rights, liberties and life itself came from their Creator.

Those great men sitting in the second Continental Congress in Philadelphia must have had William Penn's warning in mind as they drew up the Declaration: "Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."

(A readable pamphlet on this theme, "If I Did This", will be sent you free by writing the Paulist Information Service, Washington 17, D. C.)